To observing men it must have appeared from the beginning that the
majority of the Third Estate, in conjunction with such a deputation
from the clergy as I have described, whilst it pursued the destruction
of the nobility, would inevitably become subservient to the worst
designs of individuals in that class. In the spoil and humiliation
of their own order these individuals would possess a sure fund for the
pay of their new followers. To squander away the objects which made
the happiness of their fellows would be to them no sacrifice at all.
Turbulent, discontented men of quality, in proportion as they are
puffed up with personal pride and arrogance, generally despise their
own order. One of the first symptoms they discover of a selfish and
mischievous ambition is a profligate disregard of a dignity which they
partake with others. To be attached to the subdivision, to love the
little platoon we belong to in society, is the first principle (the
germ as it were) of public affections. It is the first link in the
series by which we proceed toward a love to our country and to
mankind. The interest of that portion of social arrangement is a trust
in the hands of all those who compose it; and as none but bad men
would justify it in abuse, none but traitors would barter it away
for their own personal advantage.
There were in the time of our civil troubles in England (I do
not know whether you have any such in your assembly in France) several
persons, like the then Earl of Holland, who by themselves or their
families had brought an odium on the throne by the prodigal
dispensation of its bounties toward them, who afterwards joined in the
rebellions arising from the discontents of which they were
themselves the cause; men who helped to subvert that throne to which
they owed, some of them, their existence, others all that power
which they employed to ruin their benefactor.
Pages:
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79